LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday approved extending the Honhaar Scholarship Programme to students from other provinces.
The decision was taken during a special meeting chaired by the chief minister, where key decisions concerning higher education were made.
Maryam Nawaz formally approved the Honhaar scholarship programme for second, third, and fourth-year students in Punjab and increased the number of laptops to be distributed to 110,000. A minimum eligibility criterion of 65 percent marks has been set for obtaining a laptop, which will also apply uniformly to students from other provinces.
Initially, the Honhaar programme was launched to provide annual scholarships of Rs 130,000 to 30,000 students in Punjab. More than 68 disciplines, covering 65 government and private universities, 12 medical and dental colleges and 359 colleges were declared eligible for the scholarship.
In public sector universities, an initial selection of over 20,566 applicants had been made, while the provisional merit list for the private sector institutions included 4,820 pupils.
Similarly, over 1,367 applicants were reportedly selected for the scholarship in medical and dental colleges, while over 3,247 students in HED colleges were awarded the Honhaar scholarship.
The chief minister directed the establishment of a dedicated helpline for students benefiting from the scholarship and laptop scheme.
During the meeting, Maryam Nawaz emphasised that scholarships and laptops are every child’s right and a governmental responsibility. She described education and youth as the country’s true investment.
Maryam said, “I think like a mother and want to change every child’s destiny … It’s my desire to provide a laptop to every child.
She also said that students from other provinces, including Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, “are also our children.”
The chief minister assured that financial constraints would not hinder educational schemes and promised that students meeting the merit criteria would be able to apply to top colleges with their fees covered by the government.